Types of abuse

Social media and new technologies can be used as tools by perpetrators of domestic violence. Many people experiencing domestic violence offline are also abused, harassed and stalked online by their partners or ex-partners.

Online abuse is any type of abuse that happens on the web. Online harassment or abuse could include: cyper-stalking, publishing revenge porn online, trying to damage your reputation, trolling, or encouraging other people to be abusive towards you online.

Common tactics for online or cyber abuse within an abusive relationship or when a person is being harassed include: accessing accounts, using spyware, posting on social media and tracking devices. Perpetrators may use these tools against the victim, and/or those closest to the victim.

The information that that can be obtained by digital means increases the physical risks as well the mental and financial harm.

You may experience domestic abuse or violence within a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) relationship or because you identify as LGBT.

Domestic abuse is any kind of threatening behaviour, violence, or abuse between people who have been intimate partners or family members. This includes forced marriage, abuse relating to gender identity or sexuality and so-called honour based violence. Domestic abuse can occur between current or former intimate partners, in the home, or in the family (Galop website).

Stalking is a type of harassment that can be defined as "persistent and unwanted attention that makes you feel pestered and harassed. It includes behaviour that happens two or more times, directed at or towards you by another person, which causes you to feel alarmed or distressed or to fear that violence might be used against you." (Victim Support)

Stalking and/or harassment is now defined by law, and is generally considered a course of conduct that places a person in fear for their safety.

Repeated contact from a perpetrator can rise from harassment to the level of stalking, when the contact made is designed to gain power over a person and cause emotional terror.

Elder Abuse is defined as: ‘A single or repeated act or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes harm or distress to an older person’. (Action Against Elder Abuse, 1995)

The abuse may be perpetrated by a partner, a child, another family member or carer, within a position of trust.

The abuse experienced by an older person may have started earlier in life and has persisted into old age, or it may be late onset abuse when a long-term relationship has turned abusive in old age. Alternatively. the abuse may be recent when an older person finds themselves in an abuse relationship with a partner they have met later in life.

More information can be found on the Action on Elder Abuse website here.

Domestic abuse at home can have an enormous impact on young people. The impacts can include: feeling powerless or guilty, suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder,social relationship's and development.

The aim of emotional abuse is to chip away at your feelings of self-worth and independence—leaving you feeling that there’s no way out of the relationship, or that without your abusive partner you have nothing.

This involves a perpetrator using or misusing money which limits and controls their partner’s current and future actions and their freedom of choice.
Even when a survivor has left the home, financial control can still be exerted by the abuser with regard to child maintenance.

Physical abuse is the most recognizable form of domestic violence. It involves the use of force against the victim, causing injury (e.g. a punch or a kick, stabbing, shooting, choking, slapping, forcing you to use drugs, etc.).

Anyone can experience domestic abuse - it can happen in all kinds of relationships regardless of age, race, gender identity, sexuality, disability, wealth, and lifestyle. Every case of domestic abuse should be taken seriously and each individual given access to the support they need. Any form of violence is unacceptable.

Men can experience domestic abuse. However, there are typically significant differences (in terms of the frequency and the nature of the abuse) between domestic abuse experienced by women and domestic abuse experienced by men.

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